MUSIC SCENE: Singer promises a 'funky good time'

Friday

Mar 31, 2017 at 5:00 AM

Brian Jay experimented with a lot of different musical styles, but as time went on he decided he was having the most fun when he played funk and soul music. Jay's band, The Pimps of Joytime, continue their national tour with a date in Cambridge Saturday night.

By Jay N. Miller/For The Patriot Ledger

Lifelong music fan Brian Jay experimented with a lot of different musical styles, but as time went on he decided he was having the most fun when he played funk and soul music and engaged audiences in the whole atmosphere of celebration.

The band Jay eventually put together became The Pimps of Joytime, which released its third studio album, “Third Wall Chronicles” (Sugar Road Records), last week, and continues their national tour with a date at The Sinclair in Harvard Square this Saturday night.

“At the beginning, this band was just me, messing around in the studio for the first year-and-a-half,” said Jay from his Brooklyn home this week. “Gradually the theme that seemed most persistent to me was funk and soul, because that music seemed to always get the dance floor and the band partying together. The music just seemed to have that really fun vibe that I wanted my shows to represent. Most of all, I wanted a band to be fun.”

Jay is a New Jersey native, but he grew up in Brooklyn, although he goes out of his way to note that New Orleans is his second home. Music was always a major part of his home as a youngster, and so it has been a constant factor in his life.

“Back in my younger years, I always thought my first identity would be as a radio DJ,” Jay said, chuckling. “My father had given me this huge stack of his old 45 records, people like Chuck Berry and Fats Domino, all that 1950s stuff, and I loved spinning those. Then, I fell in love with playing the drums at age 9, and soon after that, I began playing around on guitar. So it has definitely been a lifelong pursuit.”

As his musical career progressed through various projects, Jay began to pick up more and more knowledge of other facets of the industry, to the point where he’s become a much in-demand producer. Jay has produced records for such luminaries as Cyril Neville, all-star drummer Bernard “Pretty” Purdie, and Corey Henry of Galactic. In fact some of the previous Pimps of Joytime records showed his producing skills, as a cut like “The Jump” could be compared to Beck’s “Odelay” album, for instance, for its savvy use of disparate sounds and samples within an infectious, rhythmic framework.

“A lot of the stuff I’ve learned over the past 10 years is stuff I never had any intention of learning,” said Jay. “Producing is a good example, where so many times I got into it simply because there was no one else around to do it. But production has become a passion of mine, and I now spend a lot of my time working on that end. That’s the same reason I have become pretty good at keyboards; when we needed some keys, instead of hiring other guys, out of necessity I began figuring it out myself.”

One of the more interesting things about the new album is that Jay enlisted Steve Berlin of Los Lobos to help him produce it. It sounds like Berlin had as much fun as Jay did, as he’s quoted in press materials as saying “Brian Jay is a bit of a genius ... He has the remarkable ability to get an idea, get a sound, and make it real at a speed that I’ve never seen before.”

“I had met Steve Berlin a couple of years ago, through mutual friends in Portland (Oregon),” Jay explained. “I sent him my first draft of ideas for this record, and he really liked my ideas, and we exchanged emails about it. That led to him becoming my co-producer, and I learned a lot working with him.”

The new album is a pastiche of styles which is just what you’d expect from Jay. The tune “Jack Stackin’” blends samples and layered vocals, while “Everywhere I Go” works off the electronic-dance-music craze. The song “Joytime Radio” allows Jay to explore his own Shuggie Otis-inspired guitar stylings. “This Funk” features the vocal contributions of Anthony Cole, a relative of the late Nat “King” Cole. That song was discovered among a bunch of 1990s demos Anthony Cole had made, and he contributes vocals on half the album’s 10 tunes.

“No, I don’t usually go that far back for music,” said Jay,” but I had been working with Anthony for a couple of years and I really appreciate his work. The amazing thing about Anthony’s music is that his stuff is virtually unreleased at this point, and I want to change that. We are also working on an album we’re collaborating on.”

Perhaps the most intriguing number on the record is “Mud,” a collaboration with New Orleans singer/keyboardist Ivan Neville, which sort of examines the current state of the nation.

“Originally, with that one, I just wanted an instrumental track for the album,” said Jay. “We started with a slow, grinding riff, and as I began speaking, then singing words, it kind of turned into a song without me trying. I contacted Ivan and we worked it up into the arrangement that you hear on the record. There was no intent to write a topical song – this is just my personal reaction to these times.

“I believe it is so important today to curate the information you’re receiving,” Jay added, “because there’s so much out there that is not truthful, and not helpful for your development and well being. Some people can’t handle it, as we’ve seen. But it is not everybody’s role to be out there on the front lines, and while I admire those people, that’s not me. I may be there in spirit, but there are people far more qualified than me for that. My personal view is that you must follow your passion, and mine is to help people by creating positive energy through my music.”

With all the sophisticated production work, how does it all work on stage?

“I think this is a special time right now for the band,” said Jay of the quintet he leads on the road. “It’s been 10 years for us now, and we’ve been through some trials and tribulations. To feel like we’re really making music with an impact now is very gratifying. Fans can expect to hear something with a lot of focus on the vocals, and something also very funky. It is fun music, but it also has depth, and can pack a punch.

“It’s not just about dancing and making sure everybody breaks a sweat,” Jay noted. “But I would advise everyone to wear comfortable shoes or sneakers. We’ll be doing all of the new material, and it will be a funky good time.”THE PIMPS OF JOYTIME 9 p.m. Saturday at The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge. 18-plus. $16 in advance or $18 day of show. Organically Good Trio opens. boweryboston.com.